Isuzu Ready For Dakar

by Marc Greig - 14/12/12

As the year winds to an end, Car Showroom wishes all the best to our old mate Bruce Garland as he and co-driver Harry Suzuki get set to tackle the grueling Dakar Rally in their Isuzu D-MAX ute.
 

Earlier this year near Cairns, when Isuzu launched the D-MAX, Bruce treated us with a run in the race-prepared ute. Luckily conditions in FNQ were far easier than the Dakar event which includes the world’s highest known sand dune – a monster standing 1.4kms high – and a climb up to 5000-metres which requires the team to carry oxygen bottles to ease breathing.

The 2013 Dakar Rally starts in Peru on 5 January and finishes 5000kms later in Santiago, Chile on 20 January. Bruce is hoping for better luck than 2011 when a heavy landing off a jump resulted in a fractured vertebra.
 

The Garland/Suzuki Isuzu D-MAX will have some ‘Downunder’ company in the Dakar in January with West Australian Adrian Di Lallo and co-driver Steve Riley lining-up in another Isuzu D-MAX.